Rat and Rodent Exterminator in Tampa Bay

The scratching over the bedroom after dark is almost always a roof rat, the slim, dark climber that lives in citrus, palms and attics across both counties. It came in along a branch touching the roof, a palm frond on the gutter or the cable line, and entered at the roofline through a soffit gap, a torn vent screen or the hole cut for the air-conditioner line set. Once in, it nests in the insulation and chews the wiring and the AC lines.

The order of the fix matters more than the product: trap, then seal, then trim. Poison first is how a rat ends up dead inside a wall in September.

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Roof rats, Norway rats and mice

Roof rats are the bay's rat: long tail, pointed nose, attic and tree dwellers, fond of citrus, avocado and pet food. Norway rats are heavier, burrow at ground level, and show up around seawalls, dumpsters, chicken coops and the base of a slab. House mice are the small ones in the garage and the pantry, coming in under a door with a worn sweep. The inspection tells them apart by the droppings, the runways and the entry points, and each gets a different plan.

Trap first

The technician inspects the attic and the roofline, finds the runways along the joists and the pipes, and sets snap traps on them. The traps are checked and reset over a week or two until nothing new is caught. Glue boards catch the young and leave the adults. Rodenticide in tamper-resistant stations has a place outside in some jobs; a bait box dropped in the attic on the first visit is the wrong first move, and a company that leads with it is skipping the inspection.

Then seal

When the catches stop, every entry found on the inspection gets closed: hardware cloth and sealant at the soffit returns and the roof-to-wall gaps, new screens on the gable and soffit vents, the AC line penetration foamed and covered, a new sweep on the garage door, the gap under the lanai door closed. This is the exclusion, and it is the part with the warranty. Sealing before the trapping is finished locks rats inside the house.

• Soffit returns and the gap where the roofline meets the wall
• Gable, ridge and soffit vents with torn or missing screens
• The hole for the AC line set and the dryer vent
• Garage door sweeps and the gap under exterior doors
• Lifted barrel tiles and the openings at the eave of a tile roof

Then trim and clean up

Branches cut back from the roof, palm fronds off the gutter, vines off the wall, fallen citrus picked up, pet food brought in, bird feeders moved away from the house. That is what keeps the next rat from finding the roof, and it is the homeowner's part. If the infestation was long, the insulation may be soaked with droppings and urine; cleaning or replacing it is a separate job with its own quote.

What the proposal should say

The inspection findings with photos of every entry point, the number of trapping visits, the exclusion work itemized, the warranty on the sealing, and whether attic clean-up is included. Rodents inside a structure are pest control work under the company's state license. Raccoons, squirrels and opossums in the same attic are wildlife, handled under Florida Fish and Wildlife rules, and the company should say which it is before quoting.